Telesales and telemarketing are both products of marketing innovation that are designed to increase company profit using modern forms of channels – telephone, email, social media, etc.

Both schemes are often used interchangeably because they share common marketing contexts, nevertheless to distinguish the difference between the two is important. Though both may have a thin line between each other as they have one general aim, that is lead generation, telemarketing carries a more comprehensive and broader function. Telesales, on the other hand, is designed for a certain focal point.

These functions compose the survival kit that will aid every company in lead generation for marketing successes. Moreover, the most important role of telemarketing is to identify income-generating opportunities from the generated marketing leads.

Telesales however, is more focused on a single subject. It, unlike telemarketing, aims to directly convert the generated leads into sales. By principle, telesales gathers the potential income-generating leads from telemarketing or other channels and converts it into sales by outbound calling.

Technically, the process starts with telemarketing collecting the leads, then telesales will filter these lead and generate sales out of it:

Telemarketing – lead generation

Telesales – lead conversion (into sales)

For example, an online shop wants to pursue a customer who previously subscribed to their monthly newsletter. Telemarketing will conduct follow up activities, like setting webinars or appointments, to have a grasp on this potential leads. Then, telesales will quickly turn this leads into sales by offering and encouraging the potential customer to avail their products and services. In the reality, the interactions between the two is more complex and progresses thru a variety of channels. The key to a solid telemarketing is tailored programs, tactics, timeframes, and finances. This will escort quality lead generation making telesales’ lead conversion easy and seamless.

Telesales and telemarketing work as complementary elements to each other. A telesales campaign that does not use an efficient and effective telemarketing lead generation will result to low sales conversion of leads. And a telemarketing lead generation campaign is useless unless telesales can be able to convert these leads into sales.